The hardships of digital economics

Many services have tried to create systems where buying content online is easy and safe. But other attempts to create such digital economies by micropayment companies such as CyberCash, Peppercoin, and BitPass have failed.

Experts theorized many digital financial exchange systems haven't worked because they require users to install software and deal with complex interfaces.

Users also appear to be skittish about handing over their credit card info to companies they don't really know and buying content without a safety net.

But Google Wallet may solve those problems: it's has been around for a while now and users trust the brand more and more.

After setting up an account, users can just press a button to buy content. And if users are unhappy with their purchase, they can get an easy refund.

What Google Wallet might do

It's hard to predict the impact Google Wallet will have on the market, but it may just be the solution to the ailing newspaper industry.

Media companies have had problems selling online content to consumers ever since the internet began. A quick and easy way to buy articles may be just the tool they need to become solvent in an environment where pirating their content is as easy as copy and paste.

But Google says this isn't the silver bullet for monetizing Internet content, according to a post on its Commerce blog:

"Users love free content, and so we expect that advertising will remain the most effective monetization model for most content on the Web," the post said.

"However we know that there is more great content that creators could bring to the Web if they had an effective way to sell individual articles that users can find with search."

This might be the first step to creating a ubiquitous internet economy, with a safe, standardized method of payment across the digital environment.

Buying something with the press of a button from a website you've never visited may replace the arduous process of entering in credit card info with every internet vender.

Google Wallet may even one day replace real wallets, and buying something online or in a store may become similar. But that's all in the tea leaves, and Google Wallet's success depends on how many venders and consumers it can get to start using the entire service.

Google has yet to announce how it'll make money off the service, though presumably it'll take a cut of the transaction. But Google may just receive the gold doubloon for slaying content providers' white whale.